Ushka is an Asian American Writers’ Workshop 2016 fellow!

The Asian American Writer’s Workshop Open City Fellowship “fosters Asian American writers covering inequality in low-income Asian immigrant neighborhoods in New York City.” Who better for that job than our beloved Thanu aka DJ Ushka? Since coming on board with Dutty Artz, Thanu has been our strongest link to the real life local communities of immigrants and underrepresented peoples in New York City, working tirelessly to realize our Beyond The Block party, and getting us involved with amongst other amazing initiatives — immigrants rights causes. Not only that, she has been one of the main driving forces behind moving the Dutty Artz mission towards a core of social justice, and just generally rethinking of the ways we engage with each other and the cultures that are circulating in our city and digital lives.

So, for her Fellowship, Thanu will “write about the Sri Lankan communities in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. In between her commute between Staten Island and Brooklyn, Thanu plans to collect and make a mixtape of the music and sounds that immigrant taxi drivers in the city are listening to along with the stories that go along with them.”